Originally Posted by CarmenOM

Last Monday I flew RNO-SLC-MSP, leaving around noon. The first leg was overbooked as were all the RNO-SLC flights that day; the next available flight was early the next morning. The GA offered me that $400, a good overnight hotel, and $30 in meal vouchers, but said that she could not give me upgrades. I accepted that. Just as boarding started she confirmed that she would definitely need to VDB me. I waited through boarding to get the hotel and meal paperwork from her. At the very last last minute, after everyone had boarded, she said she had miscounted and there was one seat left. Needless to say, my front row aisle Economy Comfort seat had long ago been reassigned. I sat in a window seat in the center of the plane (at least not middle seat all the way back).

I have debated whether to write to Delta to complain about the seat change but it seems sort of petty for such a short flight.

I know it's always a mistake to wait around but I needed to get the hotel and meal info. The GA was working alone with only some kind of trainee with her.

Originally Posted by Often1

There's nothing to complain about. There was only one seat left and you got it. Surely you don't expect the flight to be delayed while they rearrange the entire cabin. It's the risk of VDB. Particularly on domestic flights, there are often last second misconnects and noshows, so what looked like an oversale isn't.

The way to be sure is not to hang around for your paperwork, but to insist on it on the spot and then leave the gate area. If the GA won't do that, you know they don't really need your seat yet.

Originally Posted by Stripe

Last Fall I was in BOS waiting for BOS-ATL-AUS and they needed volunteers for BOS-ATL. $600 and a room at the BOS Hilton were the offer and she said she would put me in F on the new flights. So I was pulled off the original flight (on which I had been upgraded) but it turned out there were no available F seats to assign on the new BOS-ATL, even though it showed F1. It's possible that something would have freed up by the morning but I wasn't going to chance it, so I said no to the deal. However, they had already assigned my original F seat. Fortunately the GA did the right thing and got another volunteer, bounced the upgrader in my seat back to Y, and put me back on my original flights, now booked in full F. So no VDB $ but got some extra MQMs as a result of the fuss.

This is mainly to illustrate the point made above: a VDB is not a done deal until you have new BPs and vouchers in your hands, so make sure they don't block your option to get what you had before until it is final.